Little growth detected in click fraud levels

23rd July 2008

The second quarter of 2008 saw little change in rates of pay-per-click fraud, according to a new report.

Statistics from Click Forensics show that the average click fraud rate equalled 16.2 per cent during the second three months of the year, a slight decrease compared with the first quarter's rate of 16.3 per cent.

Meanwhile, rates of click fraud on search engine content networks, such as those belonging to Google and Yahoo!, fell compared with the second quarter of 2007.

However, marketers would do well to guard against the growing dangers posed by botnets, said Click Forensics president Tom Cuthbert.

The threat from botnets is the biggest concern as they have grown to cause over one-quarter of all click fraud," he stated.

"Online advertisers should be extra vigilant in watching for traffic from botnets in their search marketing campaigns."

Click Forensics highlighted in its report for the first quarter that evidence is beginning to show of Google and Yahoo!'s efforts to minimise click fraud.